what are y'all saving from the wild to deal with coming crisis?

[perchie.girl]

My birds love rose petals. Do you air dry them, or dehydrate them, or something else?


My house is in a fire & earthquake state. I have 3 days worth of food for all of our animals, but in a long term situation like you're talking about we'd be in trouble.

I keep enough feed for at least a month for all my critters.
Horse thats about thirty bales of hay
Goats thats about four bales of Alfalfa
Poultry Thats around three hundred pounds

Water is free fed 24/7 110 gallon tub for horse, 80 for Goats and 5 gallons each for each chicken and guinea pen. If the power goes out which it does here in the desert occasionally there is enough water to last about three days. In that time I can get a secondary source started. They all can go without food for a time but none can go without water here in the desert.

When i build the poultry house I want to set up a water chache for all the livestock. Gravity fed to each of the pens.... Shaded in the coop trickle fed by the well.

for those who ask NO I do not feed grain to my horse and goats.... They get good quality hay and do no work. Bermuda for the horse Alfalfa for the goats...

Ideally I should have enough storage to double the Feed to two months worth. There are sources here where I can buy bulk feed and load it into gravity fed hoppers for the poultry. As well as having storage space for about eighty bales of hay.
Still thinking about that one....

deb

 

[Willowspirit]

I'm going to keep working on my amaranth plan for winter food. Grows all over around here as a weed, self-sows like mad, high protein seed (related to quinoa), and greens are supposed to be delicious to humans and beloved by chickens.

I’ve eaten Amaranth cookies and they were delicious.

 

[Willowspirit]

None of my horses eats alfalfa and I’ve noticed that seems to be a trend. Everyone seems to be going to grass hay. One of ours can’t eat orchard grass so we rely on Timothy. But we also will have pasture so that is good.

 

[room onthebroom]

I still have not figured out how to chop it fine enough for a hen.

Coffee grinder? I was typing that as a joke, but who knows, it might actually work. Or maybe a high powered blender like a Ninja. In a power outage you'd be reduced to grinding with a mortar & pestle.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

. . . grinding away, late into the night, for dozens of hungry chickies.

 

[Maugwa]

All cultures create myths to explain life's mysteries.
We can see the flaws in all of them, except our own.
Man abhors a mystery.
That is no excuse for inventing religions.
Every Christian here would be a Muslim if they were born in Pakistan.
Proof of how this is all indoctrination and has zero basis in truth.

The very earliest form, and most consistent form of every primitive religion began with people gaining influence by claiming that they could change the weather. Things haven't changed much.

"97%" is the big consensus number we should be talking about not "98%". Both are false, but 97% is what the common propaganda that's been bantered around for 20 years now, why raise it for this thread.

Besides, absolutely not one bit of science since Bacon defined the scientific method has ever been proven by a consensus. Usually, a scientist comes up with a hypothesis and the rest of the scientific community sets out to prove them wrong. When many have tried, yet none succeed, then we are doing science. That is not what is going on here. What is happening instead is that people studying the catastrophe of global warming are given the approval of those in government who claim they can fix it by raising your taxes. They will fund everyone who will say something to help achieve carbon taxes, but if your study does not claim to prove their point, "No grant for you". This whole study is a multi billion dollar business. They even have Bill Nye the Not Science Guy, an actor who plays make believe for a living, threatening to have people who don't agree jailed or shot. It's now to where people who weren't even involved in climatology getting in on the action. A guy studying Finches may not have a great chance of getting his grant until he learns to rename it to something like "The study of finches in a changing climate," then he's in like Flynn. A little generic follow up like, "finches may spend more time in the shade if it does get warmer," and the masses will clap their hands and honk like trained seals, "Lookie look, we got us one more scientist, honk, honk"!

If you don't think man made climate change is a religion, you seriously have to ask yourself some questions and find your own answers;

How much ice was in both ice caps total 30 years ago, and how much is there now?

How much have the seas risen in 30 years?

How much CO² is mankind responsible for since the industrial revolution? How much did Mnt. St. Helens produce in a week? How much for Krakatoa?

Who were the principal players proposing to create a carbon credit exchange market in Chicago where you can go ahead and purchase the right to burn more than your share of carbon for the right price?

What is each of our shares to burn? and what does it cost to be allowed our share? How much for extra shares? People with private jets will decide.

What if we gave them all of our money? Every damn dime? Do you think government can fix it with all our money. We can fix it faster than the government ever could, walk, or ride a bike everywhere, no horses, they fart. So do chickens, I have too, tax that. Run on solar, no more air conditioner. No burning wood for heat, that's dirtier than coal as far as CO². better blankets, thicker socks, move South. Get off the grid, get off line, progress just took you back to the middle ages.

 

[perchie.girl]

I considered cutting hay with a scythe until I bought a cow and fed one winter. 20% protein in "perfect" hay. I still have not figured out how to chop it fine enough for a hen.
There are hand balers that looked interesting for small animal survival farms, look it up on youtube.

I have seen those.... seem like a lot of work.... A person could build a round bail maker that could be done by hand ... Small manageable bales would be simple to make and store.

There are also baling machines that are horse drawn both kinds takes some skill to work a team and bale at the same time... Ideally a two man job....

 

[igorsMistress]

I'm sorry to say it, but circumstances would determine my willingness to share. What have you got that I need and vice versa.
I too mentioned self defense and we are capable to a degree. Banding together with people with varying life/survival skills plus that mindset would be important to us. I'm not ready to open the door to just anyone and everyone though.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Doing my best to get my neighbors aware/prepared for the coming hard times. Got one of them into raising quail for eggs and meat and an offer to incubate some of their eggs in a future hatch. I figure when smeg-hits-the-fan, we will all want folks around us that are FRIENDLY, and have proven their friendliness over the previous years. When she butchered her flock and put them in the freezer, I'd send eggs over to her until her new flock was laying. When she only had laying hens (chickens) and I only had laying quail, we'd trade eggs or baked goods. Her husband helped me negotiate for the four bantams that I bought, and gifted me with my one and only full-size hen, a production red. When her trees were heavy with avocado, she'd send some over. When my trees were heavy with mango, I'd send some over to her. Pretty sure when it all goes south, that I can certainly 'borrow' a cup of sugar from my neighbor, and could probably trade her some cherry cobbler for a few more cups

 

[16Chickens Keeper]

I love this thread, its nice to see people sharing concerns abbout our future